An Editor's Nightmare

Sometimes I worry about the direction that our world is headed, regarding the way we tend to glorify technology. Whether we consider Twitter, Facebook, calculators, text messaging, online banking, online shopping, or the internet, as a whole, all are working in the same way to rob us of our cognitive aptitude for the sake of convenience.

One of the most evident examples of this arises at the level that we consider typical writing practices, utilized by the majority of today's youth, such as the use of abbreviations in text messaging, as well as the use of the Microsoft Word Thesaurus tool.

In this day and age, every kid has a cell phone. Kids hardly can use the restroom without responding to the sudden 'buzz' of instant connectedness. Don't get me wrong, I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to my addiction to quickly typed responses to adoring peers and family; however, my issue is with the indolence of those who, for some strange reason, deem text messaging to be some universal pause in social civility. I mean, I understand the occasional "lol", or "ttyl" at the end of a conversation. It's catchy. I get it. But, do we honestly have to take the "a" out of "that?" Have we become so addicted to "fast" that we are willing to pardon our basic intellect?

I have received email messages from my own siblings that have literally taken hours to interpret. The future of our dialogue is on a steady path backwards to the utilization of pictures and ancient symbols. Am I the only one who sees something wrong here? What is worse is that when I proofread essays, written by my brother or sister for school, I will frequently catch some of these wretched abbreviations in their writing for academia. What is even more common throughout most of their essays is the informal use of the words "can't", or "won't" instead of cannot, or will not.

However, text messaging is not the only way that technology is corrupting the writing process. Consider the Microsoft Word thesaurus tool. Have you ever done a peer review on a piece of writing, in which you felt absolutely lost within the first three lines of reading? You may have found yourself questioning whether, or not, you received a proper education; however, upon questioning the author about the arguements that he or she was making, you realized that they, truthfully, had no clue as to what they were trying to say either. This is, often, because authors try to flower-up their writing, using random words out of the Word thesaurus tool, without knowing what any of the words mean, exactly. Hence, these individuals are, essentially, not learning anything through the writing process. Their minds' original interpretation is deformed, immediately, by technology.

What are we doing people? Murray's title says it best - Write to Learn. But, the only way that we can do that is to find a way to draw a line between what we actually know and the technology that we use to interpret what we actually know.